Building the Best Budget Commander Decks with Magic Madhouse

Introduction to Budget Commander Deck Building

With almost all of Magic: The Gathering’s 30 history available to choose from, it can be hard knowing where to start when building a budget commander deck. A recent count suggests there are more than 20,000 Magic: The Gathering cards, including over 1,000 legendary creatures that can be your commander! Among these are the so-called ‘staples’ of format, with many carrying an eye-wateringly large price tag, making building even one deck a challenge, let alone a few!

While some players accept that the format can be expensive, for others it’s an unnecessary barrier to play and there’s a very real need to find cheaper options. Then there are players (like me) that feel the temptation to build numerous decks with fun new commanders, so it’s important to save money where possible. Variety is the spice of life, after all!

First, let’s cover the basics. Commander requires a deck of 99 cards plus a legendary creature card to be the deck’s commander – so would-be deck builders need to assemble 100 cards in total. To add to the puzzle of deck building, cards in the 99 must share a colour with the commander creature’s “colour identity”, meaning any colour on the commander’s card.

With these restrictions in mind, let’s investigate ways to keep cost down when building a deck.

Key considerations for Budget Decks

Commander really doesn’t have to be expensive. Anyone who has built a budget commander deck knows that there are almost endless options that could be included in the ’99 (so much so that making those last cuts can be a nightmare). The good news is that many of these are commons and uncommons that are cheap to buy. Even the powerhouse rares and mythics have a common or uncommon equivalent that does most of the work for a fraction of the price. The fun of it is, you can slowly update your deck as your budget allows and add expensive cards as they are reprinted and their prices fall.

If you’re serious about making a budget deck, a great place to start is with one of the preconstructed Commander decks, which offer fantastic value for money. Typically, four decks are released with every set and are playable right out of the box. Not only that, but they’ve become increasingly competitive as they are and can be serious contenders with just a few minor additions. These upgrades are often common and uncommon changes, and there are podcasts dedicated to upgrades on a budget for inspiration.

Budget conscious Magic: The Gathering players could also consider creating proxies as a way to test out cards before purchasing them, however it’s important to ensure these are obviously proxies (e.g. permanent marker on a basic land) and not counterfeit cards to prevent fakes from entering the market.

There are also the benefits of digital Magic. If the commander I want to build is on MTG Arena too, I love to build the deck in digital first to properly road-test the deck and get a feel for how it plays and what cards really matter. This helps to ensure when you’re ready to buy it in paper, you won’t be buying cards you don’t need.

Finally – the choice of commander can drastically bring down the price to build an affordable MTG deck. As well as the card itself carrying a low price, many legends, especially those printed in recent years, have unique abilities and effects that work with cards typically not played in other decks, which means they tend to be cheap. Colour identity is important to remember here too as, the fewer colours, typically the cheaper the deck, as players don’t have to invest in expensive mana bases with lands such as fetch lands, shock lands, and even duals (saved for the most expensive of decks only!).

Card selection strategies

The good news is for budget commander deck builders is that there’s a cheaper alternative to almost every card out there. You’ll need to compromise on something, whether it’s a higher mana cost to pay, less utility, or just generally less powerful in some other way, but it’ll carry a cheaper price tag.

The Commander deck template can help here. Some players start with around 10 cards that draw cards, 10 that ramp, 5-10 removal spells, and around 5 board wipes. If you know you have this template in mind, you can find cheaper versions of the expensive cards in the most popular lists. Just swap out that Cyclonic Rifts for an Aetherspouts, for example.

This site can also help! When searching for certain cards, remember you can arrange by cost from low to high to find good budget options. Some printings of cards will be cheaper than others.

Aside from that, there are several sites that advise on cards that can be included in Commander decks, including simply looking at deck lists, most of which also list the price alongside.

Example Budget Commander Decks

Strategically, there doesn’t tend to be any one strategy that’s cheaper than others when building an affordable MTG deck, and you could effectively build an aggro, midrange or control deck. Combo decks tend to be harder on a budget, due to needing specific cards and a reliance on tutors and ‘free’ counterspells for protection, but there are even a few options here. However, ideally you don’t want a deck that requires specific cards and instead can still function with cheaper alternatives. There are also certain Commanders that lend themselves to budget decks.

Commanders like Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph open-up new possibilities by making cards that were previously unplayable gain new significance. With Ghyrson, any card that deals one damage is going to get tripled, turning them into do-it-yourself lightning bolts. Find a cheap way to grant deathtouch (e.g. via Gorgon’s Head), and just one damage is enough to take anything down. Cards that deal one damage to all creatures become one-sided board-wipes, while commons and uncommons that deal repeated one damage, such as Firebrand Archer or Erebor Flamesmith, are not only powerful in this deck, but can be win-cons!

Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is a great example of a mono-coloured commander who can take advantage of the fact only one colour mana is required, and therefore the mana base could be entirely basics. Light-Paws lends itself to an aura, typically a ‘voltron’ build, creating a huge creature that can kill an opponent in one-hit with commander damage. Aura’s that draw cards when they enter help keep the card-flow going, Totem-Guide Hartebeest and Heliod’s Pilgrim are cheap creatures with tutor effects while Auramancer and Archon of Falling Stars return auras from the graveyard. Usually Shroud doesn’t work that well with voltron aura Commanders (it stops you from targeting them), however because Light-Paws ability brings the aura into play without casting it, you can give Light-Paws protection once they are already loaded up. Favorable Destiny is a great, cheap, example.

Zada, Hedron Grinder benefits from both being mono-coloured, as outlined above, but also an uncommon themselves – making them another great budget option. Zada turns simple, cheap, and generally unplayable pump spells for your entire board. Expedite becomes a mass draw spell powerhouse, drawing cards for each creature you control. Zada can also be a good starting point for a goblins typal deck.

Utilising Magic Madhouse Resources

Budget players will find a good friend in Magic Madhouse. Firstly, there are thousands of commons and uncommons in stock to build your deck with. Next, via the advanced search, not only will you be able to search for the card you want, but you’ll be able to search by price (low to high) to find the very cheapest options.

Remember to keep an eye on discounts, special offers and sales too!